How to use YaBBC in the Message Boards – The U.S. Constitution Online – USConstitution.net

Apr 23, 2024

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How to use YaBBC in the Message Boards

Other pages: Board Policies, Posting Tips

The software used by USConstitution.net to support user messages is
called YaBB, and it includes a macro system for text mark-up called YABBC.
HTML used in messages will NOT survive – if you type “bold”
in a message, the “bold” will not appear bolded – the tags will “show
through.” This is a protection mechanism.

To do mark-up, use YaBBC. If you have used YaBB elsewhere on the Internet,
or any of a number of similar messaging systems, most YaBBC macros will already
be familiar. This document will list all YaBBC macros you can use in the
USConstitution.net forums.

Standard mark-up

[b]text[/b] – text between the tags is set to bold.
Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[i]text[/i] – text between the tags is set to italics.
Equivalent to HTML’s or tags.

[u]text[/u] – text between the tags is set to underlined.
Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[s]text[/s] – text between the tags is set to ~~strikeout~~.
Equivalent to HTML’s <s></s> or <strike></strike>
tags.

[sup]text[/sup] – text between the tags is set to
^superscript. Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[sub]text[/sub] – text between the tags is set to
_subscript. Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[tt]text[/tt] – text between the tags is set to teletype.
Equivalent to HTML’s <tt></tt> tags.

[fixed]text[/fixed] – text between the tags is set to use the font
Courier New. For example, this is Courier New.
Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[code]text[/code] – text between the tags is set to
code. In addition to any font change, the text is placed inside a
box. Roughly equivalent to HTML’s <code></code> tags.

[quote]text[/quote] – text between the tags is placed in a box and
separated from the surrounding text. There is no general equivalent in HTML.
Use to show text from a previous message that you are responding to. If you
are replying to several people at once, or are replying to an older message and
you wish to identify whom you are quoting, use this syntax:
[quote=name]text[/quote]. When you do this, the quote box will be topped with
the text “name wrote:”, making it easier to identify the author of the
quote.

/me – inserts your username in the message like this: * User Name.

[snip] – use as an indicator that text you have quoted has been
trimmed or “snipped”. Visually, this tag shows as a pair of scissors: .

Extended mark-up

[url]text[/url] – text between the tags is set to a clickable URL.
This can be used in two ways. Most simply, type
[url]http://www.somewhere.com[/url] to make a link that looks like
http://www.somewhere.com. You can also type
[url=http://www.somewhere.com]Click here[/url] to make a link that looks like
Click here. Linked sites are automatically opened in a new window.
Equivalent to HTML’s <a href=”http://www.somewhere.com”></a> tags.
Additionally, the board will find URLs without the [url] tags and turn them
into clickable links – for best results, be sure to use the “http://” prefix on
all URLs.

[link]text[/link] – text between the tags is set to a clickable URL.
These tags work exactly the same as [url][/url], but the URL does not open in a
new window.

[usc=page]text[/usc] – this set of tags is designed specifically for
use with the USConstitution.net site. The page should be an HTML page on the
site, such as “consttop_cabi.html” or “const.html#Am1″, and a text
desription of the page. A full URL to this site will be generated, something
like <a href=”http://www.usconstitution.net/page”>text</a>.

[ftp]text[/ftp] – text between the tags is set to a clickable FTP
URL. There are no “modifiers” as with [url] or [link]. Also available are
[news][/news] and [gopher][/gopher]. Equivalent to HTML’s <a
href=”ftp://www.somewhere.com”></a> tags.

[br] – inserts a break in the message. Equivalent to HTML’s
 tag.

[hr] – inserts a horizontal rule (line) in the message. Equivalent
to HTML’s <hr> tag.

[border=x] – when used before a [table] tag, applies a border width
to the table. x should be a number from 1 to 9. Equivalent to HTML’s
<table border=x> tag.

[list][*][/list] – inserts an unordered list in the message. Use
[list] to start the list and [/list] to end it. Place [*] in front of each
bullet point. Equivalent to HTML’s <ul><li></ul> tags.

[img]text[/img] – inserts an image in your message. The text should
be the full URL to the image. For example:
[img]http://www.mysite.com/img.gif[/img]. Optionally, you can resize an image
by providing height and width values like this: [img height=123
width=123]text[/img]. The height is limited to 500 and the width to 400. If
you specify height and width, the code must be in the order shown above.
Equivalent to HTML’s <img> tag.

[left]text[/left] – places the text in a paragraph that is left
aligned. Usually not needed, as text is left-aligned by default. Equivalent to
HTML’s tags.

[right]text[/right] – places the text in a paragraph that is right
aligned. Equivalent to HTML’s tags.

[center]text[/center] – centers the text. Equivalent to HTML’s
<center></center> tags.

[color=xxx]text[/color] – changes the color of the text to the color
specified. A limited number of color names are available, such as black, red,
and blue, or a hex value of the form “#123456” may be used. Equivalent to
HTML’s tags.

[black][/black] [white][/white] [red][/red] [green][/green]
[blue][/blue] – specifically supported colors, equivalent, for example, to
[color=black][/color].

[font=face]text[/font] – used to change the font face. Some choices
might be Arial, Verdana,
Tahoma, or Times New
Roman. Equivalent to HTML’s 
tags.

[size=x]text[/size] – used to change the font size. The choices are
generally limited to values from 1 to 7: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Equivalent to
HTML’s tags.

Tables

Tables can be created using YaBBC. The tags and options closely follow those
used in HTML. A table is started wiuth the [table] tag and ended with the
[/table] tag. Tables are made of of rows and columns. Rows are started with the
[tr] tag and end with the [/tr] tag. Columns actually consist of individual
cells within a row. A cell is started with the [td] tag and ended with the
[/td] tag. To be rendered properly, there should be an equal number of cells
in each row, but empty cells at the end of a row can be omitted.

Example: Standard table

YaBBC:
[table] [tr][td]Row 1 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 1 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 1 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Row 2 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 2 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 2 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Row 3 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 3 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 3 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [/table]

Rendered:

Row 1 Cell 1	Row 1 Cell 2	Row 1 Cell 3
Row 2 Cell 1	Row 2 Cell 2	Row 2 Cell 3
Row 3 Cell 1	Row 3 Cell 2	Row 3 Cell 3

Example: Standard table with border added – in most browsers, the default
table renders with no border. You can add the [border] tag immediately
before a YaBBC table to make the border larger. The value provided can be any
number 0 or above.

YaBBC:
[border=2][table] [tr][td]Row 1 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 1 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 1 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Row 2 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 2 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 2 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Row 3 Cell 1[/td][td]Row 3 Cell 2[/td][td]Row 3 Cell 3[/td][/tr] [/table]

Rendered:

Row 1 Cell 1	Row 1 Cell 2	Row 1 Cell 3
Row 2 Cell 1	Row 2 Cell 2	Row 2 Cell 3
Row 3 Cell 1	Row 3 Cell 2	Row 3 Cell 3

Smilies

Smilies have become ubiquitous on the Internet. Used to show emotion with
just a few quick keystrokes, YaBB supports many smilies.